There is of course no “new learning” in all this, but what is better, there is true learning in it.The enunciation of the sense of moral obligation in some form or other is to be found in the best literature of every nation that has ever had a civilisation; and what is most remarkable, as I have shown in the notes I have appended to the translation of the text, the enunciation in the same form and language as it is in this book, written two thousand years ago, is to be found in the latest writings of the best and greatest thinkers of modern Europe.（p.x-xi）［3］

当然，这里没有什么“新知识”，但是在更好的意义上有着真正的知识。用某种形式阐明道德义务的感觉，只要是文明国家，在其最高的文学作品中都能够看到。而且，应该注意的是，如同我在翻译文本的注释中指出的那样，与两千多年以前写的这本书相同的形式和言辞，在近代欧洲最高级别的思想家们最近的著作中也能够看到。

In conclusion, I wish to say here that if this little book from the old learning of China will peradventure contribute to help the people of Europe and America, especially those who are now in China, to a better understanding of the “moral law,” to a clearer, and deeper sense of moral obligation, so that they will be enabled when dealing with China and the Chinese to substitute, for the spirit and attitude of the civilisation of the “gunboat” and “the mailed fist” of Europe, the moral law; in their every relation with the Chinese as individuals and as a nation, to respect and obey the sense of moral obligation-then I shall feel that I have not spent in vain the labour of many years in understanding and translating this book.（p.xi-xii）

最后，我希望传达古代中国的知识的这本小书，多少能够有助于给欧洲或者美国的人们，特别是现在旅居中国的人们，带来对“道德法则”的更好的理解，和对道德义务的清晰而深刻的感觉。倘能如此，他们和中国或者中国人交往的时候，大概能够用道德法则取代欧洲的“炮舰”或者“武力”文明的精神和态度吧，而且，在他们作为个人，或者作为国家的所有关系中，大概也能够尊重并遵从道德义务的感觉吧。到那时，我为了理解和翻译这本书而付出的长年的辛苦，也就并非徒劳了吧。

喜怒哀乐之未发，谓之中，发而皆中节，谓之和。中也者天下之大本也。和也者，天下之达道也。

喜怒哀乐等感情在涌动之前的平静的状态，称之为中。感情涌动，但是都符合应有的节度的状态，称之为和。中乃是全世界的（万事万物的）伟大的根本，和乃是全世界无论何时何地都通用的道。

When the passions, such as joy, anger, grief and pleasure, have not awakened, that is our true self or moral being（中）.When these passions awaken and each and all attain due measure and degree, that is the moral order（和）. Our true self or moral being is the great reality（大本 lit.great root） of existence, and moral order is the universal law（达道） in the world.

Two things fill the soul with always renewed and increasing wonder and admiration the oftener and more deeply one's thought is occupied with them: the starry sky above and the moral law within me!

有两样事物，每当我想到它们的时候，心中总是充满感叹和崇敬之情，而且时间愈久，其情愈新，愈增。那就是在我之上的璀璨星空，和在我之内的道德律令。［7］

“our true self”-literally our central（中）inner self, or as Mr.Matthew Arnold calls it, “the central clue in our moral being which unites us to the universal order”.Mr.Arnold also calls it our “permanent self”.Hence, the text above says, it is the root of our being.Mr.Arnold says, “All the forces and tendencies in us are like our proper central moral tendency, in themselves beneficent, but they require to be harmonised with this central （moral） tendency.”-St.Paul and Protestantism.

our true self——如字面所示，我们的中心的（“中”）、内在的自我，即马修·阿诺德所说的“使我们与宇宙秩序相通的，我们的道德性存在的，中心的线索”。阿诺德也称之为我们的“不变的自我”。因此，上面的文句是说，那是我们的存在的根本。阿诺德氏所谓：“在我们内部存在的所有的力量和倾向，和我们固有的中心的道德倾向相同，其本身是充满了慈爱的，但是，还有必要和这个中心的（道德的）倾向相互调和。”（《圣保罗和清教主义》）

In modern days the Christian Missionaries say that Confucianism is not a religion because it has no abstruse theory such as the Christian dogma of the Trinity, or the Godhead of the Eternal Son.“But surely,” says Mr.Matthew Arnold, “if there be anything with which metaphysics have nothing to do, and where a plain man without skill to walk in the arduous paths of abstruse reasoning may find himself at home, it is religion.For the object of religion is conduct; and conduct is really, however men may overlay it with philosophical disquisitions, the simplest thing in the world.” Indeed, the greatness of Confucius as a true religious teacher lies even in this: that his teaching contains no abstruse “ism” and it insists not upon any singular theory of living, but upon the simple doing of plain ordinary duties of every day life.

近年来，基督教传教士们说，儒教没有像基督教的教义三位一体或者神之子的神性那样的深远的理论，所以不是宗教。“但是，的确，”马修·阿诺德说，“与形而上学全无关联，而且也没有能力去跋涉深远理论的艰难道路的普通人，如果还有能够怡然处之的地方，那就是宗教。之所以这样说，原因在于，宗教的目的在于‘行动’，所谓行动，即使有人用哲学讨论来笼罩它，它依然是世界上最简单的事情。”孔子作为真正的宗教导师的伟大之处也正在于此。他的教导中没有深远的“主义”，不曾提出一个生活的理论等等，只是主张在日常生活中完成极其平凡的义务。